New Churches Podcast

Episode 799 Host Ed Stetzer chats with his colleague Craig Hazen, the Founder and Director of Christian Apologetics at the Talbot School of Theology. Together, they discuss the impact of apologetics within the church-planting sphere and how this study and practice grants us confidence to move forward in our missional calling to share the peace of Christ’s truth with the world. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: How to demystify apologetics for both yourself and your congregation Ways to move from evangelism to apologetics as you minister to others Why the college campus is a great place for this study and practice How you can meet people where they are with the truth of Christ, no matter their starting point with the gospel The role of joy within your apologetics engagement! Helpful Resources: Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): Offer reasons for your faith and why it is you put your trust in Jesus. Apologetics is the ministry of helping people answer their questions. — Craig Hazen Apologetics is going to become more and more important as the culture becomes more and more secular. — Ed Stetzer We still make strong arguments, but we try to do so with gentleness and respect. The one thing that really juices up the gentleness and respect is having a deep knowledge of the subject. — Craig Hazen Argumentation means different things to different people, but persuasive apologetics in the public sphere and in relationships is essential today. — Ed Stetzer I’m much more sensitive to the Holy Spirit when I’m not working out of anxiety as I’m witnessing to a person. — Craig Hazen The challenge is that a lot of people are just not safe conversation partners with spiritually questioning people. — Ed Stetzer The post The Role of Apologetics in Church Planting appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 798 Hosts Vance Pitman and Noah Oldham share an encouraging word with Ray Ortlund, the author, pastor, and founder of Immanuel Nashville. Together, they discuss the significance of forming Christ-exalting personal habits within the earliest days of ministry. Tune in to discover how you can create safeguards for the long-term health of your ministry as well as your own personal spiritual walk with Christ. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: What sets church planting apart from other vocations The tried-and-true basics of spiritual discipline within the Christian faith Why your understanding of prayer may need some recalibration The role of confession within the church today Why theological accountability and alignment matter in your ministry from day one Helpful Resources: Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): There’s a lack of theological accountability in the world we live in today because denominations were the buttresses of theological accountability. — Vance Pitman How can you preach a crucified Savior with personal, showoff-y, “Look at me. I’m so cool” kind of preaching persona? It doesn’t fit. — Ray Ortlund The Holy Spirit entered into Paul’s ministry and created converts, not because they were impressed by him, but because they were enthralled by Jesus. Now that’s church planting like an apostolic work. — Ray Ortlund Dear brother, to whom do you confess your sins? The answer cannot be nobody or “I only confess my sins to God.” There’s a reason James 5:16 is in the Bible. — Ray Ortlund I don’t use the word “accountability” because I’ve seen it used in a coercive way, but “transparency” is mutual. I don’t believe we can go too far wrong if we’re living in transparency and in honest brotherhood together. — Ray Ortlund We can face anything if we will walk with God. And if we don’t have a real, honest, moment-by-moment walk with the Lord and we’re just great at church planting, that is total failure, brilliantly disguised as massive success. — Ray Ortlund The post Disciplines to Start in Early Ministry appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 797 Host Tony Merida meets with Jeff Medders, the Director of Theology and Content at SEND Network, to discuss the significance of the resurrection in our daily lives as believers, as well its power in the weekly rhythms of our churches. Tune in to discover how emphasizing the resurrection empowers us to live boldly on mission for the gospel. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: How the resurrection remains applicable to every church in every context The gospel’s implications for our daily lives, here and now How to combat cultural desensitization toward the cross The reason you can navigate your doubts with assurance as you look to the empty tomb Why your sermons about the resurrection are not just for Easter Sunday! Helpful Resources: Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): Jesus has risen from the dead, and therefore everything changes. No matter your context, the risen Christ is the lean-in factor of Christianity. — Jeff Medders The crucifixion and resurrection go together, but oftentimes, at least in my observation and experience, there’s been a deemphasis on the resurrection. — Tony Merida If you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a Christian. So, let’s advocate for more resurrection. I want people to walk out of our churches going, “This guy believes Jesus is alive.” It changes everything. — Jeff Medders Whatever labor you’re doing for the cause of the kingdom is not in vain. Nothing done in Jesus’ name is in vain because the tomb is empty. This fuses my everyday ministry with purpose and meaning and keeps me from despair as I preach the resurrection. — Tony Merida The entire New Testament only came to be because Jesus rose again from the dead. The entire ecosystem of Christianity is a resurrection atmosphere. — Jeff Medders The resurrection is not just a truth we die on, but it’s a truth we live on. — Tony Merida The post Preaching the Resurrection appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 796 Hosts Vance Pitman and Noah Oldham share insight into one of the most difficult aspects of planting a church in North America today: establishing sustainable patterns of rest. Here’s what you can add and subtract to your life in ministry in order to live in the rest Christ has prepared for you. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: How a reboot and reset could revive you in your ministry calling What apostolic wiring has to do with your missionary zeal Why accountability is essential for biblical sabbath How rest can positively impact your church’s leadership pipeline Why creating space for interruption leads to greater ministry opportunity Helpful Resources: Vance’s book: The Stressless Life Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): We have limits, and God made us spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional beings. If we don’t care for ourselves in those areas and establish a balance between work and rest, we’re going to make some major mistakes. — Vance Pitman We tend to have in our minds that Jesus demands we work hard, be diligent, and exhaust ourselves. There is an element of truth in that, but at the same time, there’s a balancing tension of spiritual obedience. — Vance Pitman It is not unspiritual to pull away from the demands of ministry to rest. As a matter of fact, it’s unspiritual not to in ministry. — Vance Pitman The primary calling of my life is not ministry; it’s intimacy. Ministry is what He does out of the overflow of intimacy. If you look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels, Jesus is constantly interrupted and never in a hurry. — Vance Pitman Muscle only grows when you rest it and fuel it. Church planting is the same way. You have to rest to see the growth happen. — Noah Oldham The philosophy of much of North American church planting is the superstar, lone-ranger, high-capacity planter, but the philosophy of the New Testament is teamwork. — Vance Pitman The post Creating Rhythms of Rest appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 795 Host Ed Stetzer meets with church planters Adam Muhtaseb and Richard Pope to discuss their best practices when it comes to facing hardship while leading a new church plant. Here’s why rest, repentance, and reliance on God and His people are essential for planters as they seek to lead others to Christ’s truth amidst life’s greatest difficulties. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: Ways to impactfully communicate hardship to your congregation The power of simple gospel prayer within biblical community Why sabbath is essential for church planters today The role God’s sovereignty plays into your calling as a leader in the church How God can use all things—even terminal diagnoses—for the furtherance of His gospel to the world Helpful Resources: Richard Pope’s podcast: Terminal: The Dying Church Planter Kerry and Chris Shook’s book: One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Are you ready to enroll in our Church Planting Masterclass? Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): Successful church planting is a series of successfully resolved crises because there’s always a crisis and something that’s falling apart. — Ed Stetzer Embrace strategic failure, knowing that God is still working when you can’t crush it this week. Once I recognized and got to a place of peace with that, it enabled me to rest and sabbath a little bit more. — Adam Muhtaseb Suffering gives us a weird opportunity to show grace, love, kindness, and mercy. When you show and allow people into your suffering, keeping the gospel forefront, it’s a teaching moment for your church. — Richard Pope God can do more in six days than you can do in seven, and He wants you to do six. — Adam Muhtaseb Obedience and faithfulness to the Lord is always more fruitful than doing things our way. — Richard Pope The post Church Planting in the Face of Personal Challenges appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 794 Hosts Vance Pitman and Noah Oldham kick off the new year by discussing the significance of casting a church-wide vision as leaders within your congregation. Discover how biblical leadership surpasses the ordinary markers of goal setting and why you’re called to simply take the next step forward in faithfulness as you wait expectantly upon the Lord. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: How visionary leadership in the church differs from that of the marketplace God’s Old Testament vision for His people versus the New Testament vision found in Christ Methods of reinforcing vision and assessing progress throughout the calendar year How to use the power of story to effectively communicate vision to your congregation Four ways for your people to seek and hear God as a unified church body Helpful Resources: Are you part of a new church plant? Learn more about our new church offer here. Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): Being a visionary leader in pastoring, preaching, writing, and leading means casting vision in every realm where God has placed you. — Noah Oldham Visionary leadership is allowing people to see God’s activity in the world and then showing them how they can get in on it. — Vance Pitman When you show believers the activity of God in the world, you show them that God is big and that He is moving in the world. There is something in the heart of every believer that longs to leverage their life. — Vance Pitman There’s a different paradigm of how God speaks to His people in the New Testament, and the principle is hearing God together. The New Testament knows nothing of a Christianity without community. — Vance Pitman You don’t give to a church; you give through a church as an opportunity to join in God’s activity of expanding His kingdom. — Vance Pitman Don’t let deadlines drive the agenda. Let intimacy with the Father drive the agenda. — Vance Pitman The post Vision Casting for a New Year appeared first on New Churches.

Episode 793 What does it look like to connect with your community? Noah Oldham and Vance Pitman talk with Mark Lee about best practices for engaging your community as a new church planter. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: The best place to start connecting with your community How to be seen as a partner, rather than a parasite What foreign missions can teach us about being a missionary The principle of living your life with your eyes open to God’s activity around you How to mentor your core team to reach out to the city Helpful Resources: The Externally Focused Quest The Art of Neighboring Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer Are you ready to enroll in our Church Planting Masterclass? Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): When we begin to be viewed as partners in our communities and cities, we create relational bridges that allow the gospel to walk from our lives into the lives of those we’ve been called to serve. —Vance Pitman The way we connected with the community was that I just wanted to connect with my street, to just be the pastor of my street. Sometimes we can make it too complicated: Who do I need to reach out to? Where do I need to go? I just started where I lived. —Mark Lee The greatest church planting class I took in seminary was actually on foreign missions. It taught me about these principles of being a missionary. And one of those principles was finding a person of peace. —Noah Oldham Find ways you can build relationships with the people in your life. For me, a lot of it had to do with what my kids were doing. The first 13 families I led to Christ, I led to Christ coaching Little League baseball and NFL flag football. —Vance Pitman Once we have followers, disciples and a core team, how do we mentor them to reach out to the city too? For my core team, I provided a framework: prayers, conversations, table fellowships and invitations. —Mark Lee When we started, we created what we called the Personal Touch Tip Sheet. It was 40 examples of how you could connect with someone. Like, for example, when somebody moves in on your street, bake some cookies or bread, make a meal, and take it to your neighbor. —Vance Pitman Keep being faithful and trust the Lord to build His Church. —Noah Oldham The post Best of 2023: Connecting with Your Community as a New Church Planter appeared first on New Churches.

Three Christian authors and speakers, Ed Stetzer, Shane Pruitt, and Catherine Renfro, discuss how to give an effective gospel presentation. They explore different methods of inviting people to Jesus without manipulation and highlight the four types of people hearing every sermon. They also emphasize the importance of clear and concise invitations, as well as the theological elements of a gospel presentation. If you want to learn more about giving an effective gospel presentation, this podcast episode is for you.

Learn about creating a culture of sending through preaching, the biblical basis for a 'Sending Church', how to help people put 'living sent' into action, and the significance of developing a culture of sending in the church. Discover the role of preaching in cultivating this culture and the importance of prioritizing the expansion of God's kingdom over personal ambitions.

Episode 790 Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect your church differently than others? Host Ed Stetzer talks with Warren Bird about fascinating new research. In This Episode, You’ll Discover: How church launches and funding were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic The effect on planters’ mental health How evangelism and discipleship fared The “big disappointment” in the research findings Advice for planters in light of research Helpful Resources: EFCA research: New Faces of Church Planting and Multi-siting PDF download: EFCA findings on the pandemic’s impact Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers Interested in learning more? Check out our Church Planting Primer Are you ready to enroll in our Church Planting Masterclass? Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches): Movie theaters and schools where, disproportionately, church plants meet, were shut down. It really had an impact on church planting. When schools started meeting again, many didn’t let anybody in from the outside, to create a bubble. — Ed Stetzer I was surprised at how few things dipped during the pandemic. I was brought to tears when I tallied the survey responses and I saw how many hundreds of churches launched during the pandemic. — Warren Bird New churches put a heavier emphasis on evangelism than discipleship, but discipleship increased. — Ed Stetzer We found that, both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic, evangelism was stronger than the discipleship component, but during the pandemic, the discipleship meter was almost as high as the evangelistic meter. — Warren Bird I think it probably was the greatest time of church shifting and switching in our lifetime. I want new churches to be evangelized into existence. — Ed Stetzer While people are willing to gather in most places now, the volunteering piece—that second step of engagement—has been really slow. It did not surge back with the people coming back. — Warren Bird Can you imagine three years ago saying, “Hey, everyone, scan the QR code on your screen”? But now the grandmas are holding up their phones and scanning the QR code. It is fascinating how this has been accelerated technologically. — Ed Stetzer The post Best of 2023: Did the Pandemic Change Church Planting? appeared first on New Churches.